Session Information
23 SES 01 D, Media and Education Policy Making (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 02 D
Contribution
In many countries, such as the United States, Australia and England, neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism have become the two dominant ideologies in educational policymaking process (Apple, 2000), and Turkey is no exception. The state reinforces its agenda through educational change. However, it works “not alone but within a loose network of agencies” to secure public’s consent (Mayo, 2015). The state’s relationship with these networks, which Gramsci (1971) refers as civil society, helps to secure its objectives in education. This paper considers the role civil society plays in the public’s attitude towards education reforms in Turkey. The Turkish case study focuses on 4+4+4 (4+) education reform, which is the latest education bill passed in 2012.
4+4+4 stands for twelve years of compulsory education as in: four years of primary, four years of middle and four years of secondary school education. Even though this reform was said to increase the compulsory education from eight to twelve years, many people argued that the +4 was actually going to decrease the length of the compulsory education. The reason for this belief is that the reform paves the way for students to attend imam-hatip (religious) schools after completing year four at the age of ten. Moreover, the reform allows students to continue with open education as well as giving them the option to have a break from formal schooling to attend Islamic (Hafizlik) training. However, the Ministry of National Education (MEB) claims that the 4+ was aimed at improving the public’s educational attainment, increasing the compulsory schooling and democratising the overall education system (MEB, 2012,p.5). The 4+, in contrast to the education reform (1997 Basic Education Act) it replaced, is said to be a democratic reform that takes the civil society’s perspectives into consideration.
This paper draws from Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and civil society. Several scholars have already drawn a link between Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and education (see, Entwistle, 1979, Mayo, 2015, and Borg et al., 2002). Based on Gramsci’s work (1971) hegemony describes a situation where a social group or a class exercise “intellectual and moral leadership” to dominate over “antagonistic groups, which it tends to liquidate, or to subjugate perhaps even by armed force; it leads kindred and allied groups” (Gramsci, 1971, p. 58). In the context of Turkey, the importance of hegemony is that it helps to understand how the state uses cultural and moral values in education to implement its own ideology and power.
The dominant group’s hegemony is often exercised within the civil society (Gramsci, 1971). For Gramsci the civil society and the state were not entirely autonomous in their relationship with each other. Civil society referred to the cultural and political institutions of the state: “in the sense that one might say that the State = political society + civil society, in other words hegemony protected by the armour of coercion” (Gramsci, 1971,p. 262-3). In the Turkish case, the civil society appears to function within the state rather than separately. For instance, there was enough popular consent that supported AKP government’s 4+4+4 education reform. How did they generate this consent? Through civil society, as in: “powerful ideological influences circulated through the corporations, the media, and the numerous institutions that constitute civil society–such as the universities, schools, churches, and professional associations” (Harvey, 2005, p.40).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Apple, W.M.,2000. Between Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism: Education and Conservatism in a Global Context. In Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives. New York: Rutledge. pp.57-58. Gramsci, A., 1971. Selections From The Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers. Harvey, David.,2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mayo, Peter.,2015. Hegemony and Education under Neoliberalism: Insights from Gramsci.Routledge Studies in Education and Neoliberalism. Oxford. Taylor&Francis. Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı., 2012. 12 YIL ZORUNLU EĞİTİM- Sorular ve Cevaplar. Booklet. Ankara: Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı (Ministry of National Education) Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı (Ministry of National Education). Stevenson, Howard, Carter, Bob.,2009.Teachers and the State: forming and re‐forming partnership”. Journal of Educational Administration and History.
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